Capturing greater value from international visitors

The Government is seeking to increase the value of international visitors to New Zealand’s economy.

Evidence suggests that some visitors are willing to pay more than they do for the world class experiences they have in New Zealand. One cause of this is that many tourism ‘inputs’ (such as tourism infrastructure, national parks, museums) are free of charge or heavily subsidised for international visitors. If the value of these services is not captured by commercial businesses, such as through guiding or accommodation, it is lost to the economy.

Solutions are likely to include targeting and attracting more high-value visitors to New Zealand, while ensuring we maximise the value of these visitors to the economy.

We are currently determining the scope of our work in this area and further updates will be provided as the project progresses.